Portrait - The Invisibility Cloak.

[Zenbohemian]

Hello.

I took this photo of my daughter a year and a half ago in aperture priority -- partly because I wasn't yet comfortable in manual mode and partly because she tended to move a lot.

She was eleven at the time and threw the curtain over her head, calling it her Invisibility Cloak, though I don't know if that really translates here.

It was taken with a 50mm lens on my cropped sensor DSLR. It wasn't cropped and I don't think any post-processing was done. At the most, I may have adjusted the exposure or saturation slightly in iPhoto.

Specifically, I'm concerned it may be too close-up (the chin cuts too close to the bottom), and that the way the light hits the material on the upper part of the photo (near her forehead) is distracting. If I had to redo it I would have gotten down to her eye level. I'm also wondering if I should burn the edges or maybe the nose.

Any other comments?

Thank you very much for any feedback.

18883

[theantiquetiger]

First off, welcome to the forum.

As far as a critique, I like it a lot. The crop is good (IMO). It may be a little too blue (just dial down the blue a touch). It is soft in the eyes. I know they are hidden behind the vale, so either the vale in front of the eyes needs to be super sharp, or the eyes behind it.

Only other little nitpick I have is the wrinkles in the vale on the face, they are distracting to me.

what size was the image when you uploaded it? If the image was bigger than 325kb and 1029 pixels wide, the site resizes it and makes it soft.

[Zenbohemian]

Thanks, AT. I appreciate the feedback, and the welcome.

I loaded an image 800px wide and around 272k, so it's not a matter of being too big. You can view it in Flickr to see a much sharper version: 2012 07 11. Invisibility Cloak | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenbohemian/12667572973/)

That said, the focus is on the material rather than the eye. It wasn't intended that way, that's just the failing of my focusing. The left eye is more in focus than the right since it's marginally closer, but in retrospect perhaps I should have tried to focus on the right eye which is better lit.

Thanks again.

[theantiquetiger]

Are you sure it wasn't too big when you uploaded it because it looks 1000x sharper and better on Flickr? I see it is 198kb now, so it did get compressed. i maybe wrong on my max kb size for the forum.

Edit***

I checked, the size max is 375kb and 1028 px wide. It may just be me. I think it looks a lot better on Flickr then it does here.

[Zenbohemian]

The maximum kb size is 325k or thereabouts, and 1029px wide. I downloaded a copy off of Flickr that was the closest to the max allowed, which was 800px and 200kb (I just checked the file I downloaded). Maybe it's too small for great resolution here?

Trying to use the share link on Flickr with the 1024px... let's see if it works any better.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zenbohemian/12667572973" title="2012 07 11. Invisibility Cloak by ZenBohemian, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7395/12667572973_0f94fbe4c1_b.jpg" width="1024" height="680" alt="2012 07 11. Invisibility Cloak"></a>

I'm definitely doing something wrong when inserting that code. Hmm.

[theantiquetiger]

Just a FYI, just post the image from Flickr via a link. Goto the page of the image on Flickr, click small box with arrow coming out the top. Grab the HTML/BBCode, and just paste it here (I use the Large 1024 size). When you complete the post, the image appears along with a link to Flickr. (I would give you a screen shot, I never figured out how to do that)

[theantiquetiger]

The maximum kb size is 325k or thereabouts, and 1029px wide. I downloaded a copy off of Flickr that was the closest to the max allowed, which was 800px and 200kb (I just checked the file I downloaded). Maybe it's too small for great resolution here?

Trying to use the share link on Flickr with the 1024px... let's see if it works any better.

<a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zenbohemian/12667572973" title="2012 07 11. Invisibility Cloak by ZenBohemian, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7395/12667572973_0f94fbe4c1_b.jpg" width="1024" height="680" alt="2012 07 11. Invisibility Cloak"></a>

I'm definitely doing something wrong when inserting that code. Hmm.

Looks like you are grabbing the link, not the HTML/BBCode

it should look like this when you post it (I added a few spaces after the brackets so it would not convert)

[ url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/13298657695/] http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7334/13298657695_d1839c83fb_b.jpg[ /img][ /url]
[ url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/13298657695/]tennis7[/url] by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr


Here is a picture I found that helps. make sure you get the BBCode, not the HMTL

[IMG]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2605/5772507859_3eb29d88b4_o.jpg

[Zenbohemian]

Thanks, AT!

[Marko]

If you do a properties check on any image on this forum - you can see whether the image was compressed or not.
This image was NOT compressed by our forum software as it's less than 1025 pixels in width and less than 325k
Personally I upload all images directly at about 1000 pixels wide and at about 250k. Not once has there ever been a problem for me.

As for critique, I like this photo a lot. Crop is fine for me and works with the subject.
As for the burning in - you'll need to be very delicate.
My first area would be a 10% burn at top mid - right. There's an upside down looking triangle just above her eyebrow.
Second area - 5% -10% burn on the contour of the face
third area - nose and right cheek - 5%

Hope that may help.

[Zenbohemian]

Very helpful.

Thanks Marko.

[Iguanasan]

I love this shot. Yes, the "invisibility cloak" translates for almost everyone here as long as they've seen/read Harry Potter ;)

I'm not sure what you are using for editing software but I've started using Lightroom and while I'm far from a pro, I can say that those highlights can easily be reduced with the highlight slider which makes life a lot easier for touching up "hot spots" like that. I really suck at actual burning and dodging (using Gimp) but sliding the highlights slider is easy. ;)

That stare is mesmerizing to me. Love this shot. It might be a tad stronger if the edge of the frame was a little lower as having it cut right at the edge of the chin is a bit off for me but only because you drew attention to it. Her eyes grab my attention enough that it really doesn't matter to me though. :thumbup:

[Mad Aussie]

Haven't got time to give critique myself but I like it. I think B&W or a monotone would suit it well.

[Zenbohemian]

Thanks for the feedback, Iguanasan.

Alas, I only have iPhoto and the most basic of Photoshop skills. One day I'll acquire Lightroom!

[Iguanasan]

There's nothing wrong with those tools, my friend. You can do all kinds of great stuff with those tools, it can be just a little easier with Lightroom. I've only just started using Lightroom recently myself.

[Lorey]

I like it as is. Great shot!